Steven Gerrard believes a return to old ways will bring impetus to England's World Cup campaign in their match with Algeria tomorrow night. The Liverpool midfielder, who scored the opener in the 1-1 draw with the USA, expects to revert to the more advanced role he had in qualifiers that saw Wayne Rooney score nine times. There have been no further international goals for the striker since the 5-1 rout of Croatia at Wembley last September.

The balance of the line-up will alter now that Gareth Barry is free of his ankle injury. With the holding midfielder in place, Gerrard should be liberated as he roves from an attacking post towards the left. "I think that's the plan," he agreed, as he anticipated linking with Rooney. "We've had a fantastic understanding in qualification.

"I like playing with good players and I enjoy playing with Wayne. Hopefully I can provide a goal for him to get off the mark. I've said all the way through qualifying that, if we got to the World Cup, we'd need Wayne to be our top goalscorer and to score the goals to take us to the later stages because he's our main player."

Gerrard, after a trying season with Liverpool, exudes a confidence now that he has been released into a World Cup campaign. Few anticipated that Rooney might be the person in need of a fillip, yet his one goal in an England shirt of late was an irrelevance since it occurred in a warm-up match with the South African club side Platinum Stars.

Gerrard was solicitous. "He's looking great in training," said the captain. "It's only a matter of time before he finds the back of the net again. He's had a terrific season. He's been the best player in the world, or one of them. He's been in a rich vein of form. It's only a matter of time before we see that again."

Rooney himself could well be confused by the contrasts in this campaign since he had been more telling than ever in club football, recording 33 goals for Manchester United over the season recently completed. While prospering in the qualifiers he often enjoyed space created by the target man Emile Heskey and it looks as if Capello will retain the partnership for the second match in the group stage.

The impact needs to be decisive if England are not put themselves in unexpected trouble. "We wanted to get the three points from the first game and were disappointed to get just one but now we have to push on," said Gerrard.

"The dangerous thing is to underestimate Algeria and think it's an automatic three points, which it's not going to be. We've prepared really well for this game and I feel we're ready to put in a sharp performance."

The possible explosiveness of Rooney and Gerrard appears to rely on a conservative streak elsewhere that will be deepened by the inclusion of Barry.

"First of all it's great to have him back, fit and available," said the Liverpool player. "He's really calm in possession and hopefully he will give us the protection the two centre-halves need. He's been fantastic for England over the last few years."

Capello has encouraged the idea in his squad that the display against the USA was generally good. But clean sheets have become uncommon even if the goal conceded to the USA was a freakish error by Robert Green.

For all that, the tale of his blunder would not have assumed such great proportions had England been more effective in the other penalty area. Frank Lampard, so regular a scorer with Chelsea, has not recorded a goal for his country since Rooney did, in that rout of Croatia.